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West Roxbury Albanians forced into exile

The Bulletin reports the owner of a VFW Parkway building that houses an Albanian social club is evicting the club, partly because their effort to obtain a permanent liquor license doesn't sit at all well with parents of kids at a daycare center in the same building. Also, club members had earlier promised not to serve booze.

Comments

Middle eastern? Not even CLOSE. Albania is across the water from Italy and next to Greece. It is a Balkan country. The Albanian language is one of the "Balkan Romance languages", direct offshoots of Latin, along with various flavors of Romanian.

I'm sure that the extensive congregation that frequents St. George's would really be pleased to know that they are from the Middle East.

Actually, they would gently correct you and explain that there are multiple faiths in Albania, all suppressed under communist rule, and reemerging now that things are open again.

My husband is descended from the first Albanian to emigrate to the US in 1886 - a man of the Orthodox Christian faith. My academic department hosted multiple students who hailed from Albania, and they represented three different heritages - yet considered themselves Albanian Americans first and foremost. One woman said "I guess I'm technically Muslim", and another guy I shared an office with said that he "had no Muslim identity" even though his ancestors had been converted during incursions by the Ottoman Empire.

Why does the existence of a daycare center in the same building get everyone all fired up? It's not as if there's going to be this massive charge of 3 year olds bellying up to the bar. Having the liquor license doesn't automatically mean they're turning the place into a tavern. What about a 50th wedding anniversary party? What about a bridal shower? Am I missing something?